The future of moose in parts of Atlantic Canada is unclear

by Bob Bancroft

The majestic moose (Alces alces), is right up there with the beaver as an iconic wildlife symbol of the internationally envied Canadian wilderness. Humans have a tendency to take for granted what they have—but many, many nations would love to have such an outstanding creature roaming their natural environment.

Largest members of the deer family, and any antlered game in the world, they are immediately striking because of their extremely long legs and resulting height. The joke is that they were designed by a government committee—the muzzle is huge and distinctive while the dangling “bell” (more properly “dewlap”) also distinguishes them, as does their prancing piston-like gait whereby the front knees are lifted high when the animal runs. A mature bull, weighing more than 1,000 lbs. with five-foot wide antlers, can trot almost silently through the forest.

We have four strains of moose in North America, the Alaskan being the largest, and we have two of those strains here in the Atlantic—the eastern moose (A. alces americana), which is the most common, and the northwestern moose (A. alces andersoni), the second largest. Those imported Cape Breton moose from western Canada, which have thrived, are huge animals. The antlers on full grown bulls are five and a half feet across. They stand six and a half feet high at the shoulder and may weigh as much as 1,400lbs.

So, how well are we looking after this magnificent wildlife asset?

Not particularly well, as it turns out. In fact, moose on the mainland of Nova Scotia could be on their way to extinction.

Depending on where you live in Saltscapes country, the local moose population has a complicated history and faces an uncertain future in some areas. These woodland creatures need our understanding of their habitat requirements, and action if many are to survive.

Photo credit: Scott Leslie

Heavy hunting and the conversion of their forest habitats to farms dramatically reduced eastern moose populations in the early 1800s. By 1930, with game laws and new forest growth, moose were once again becoming common.

However, for reasons that are still not fully understood, Cape Breton Island moose had disappeared by about 1924. In the mid-1940s, 18 individuals of a western moose subspecies from Elk Island National Park in Alberta were introduced on Cape Breton Island. Science suggests that 18 individuals constitute an insufficient number for a complete representation of moose genes in subsequent offspring. Indeed, the current population of about 5,000 could become genetically-challenged if it experiences significant change in the future.

Mainland Nova Scotia hosted legal moose hunting until 1981. Declared endangered in October 2003, the population at that time was considered to number about 1,000 to 2,000 animals. Although there have been requests for the results of recent moose surveys, no official results have been released. Multiple sources suggest that numbers have dwindled to roughly 100.

The entire Newfoundland population is founded on four Nova Scotia moose introduced in 1904. Even less genetic flexibility, or lack of resilience, is inherent in that population, which officially stands at around 110,000. (Hunters suggest that it’s more like 60,000 to 80,000.)

Moose disappeared from Prince Edward Island long ago. A wonderful source of meat, they were likely shot by hungry settlers.

New Brunswick moose population estimates have risen in recent times to about 32,000 in 2015. The 2018 tally may be down. There are reasons to forecast a possible downward trend, but first, let’s deal with what moose require on the 24 to 40 square kilometres of habitat they use as a territory.

Moose have voracious appetites and large nutritional requirements. Their daily diet, which varies seasonally, involves consuming 40-plus pounds of browse—leaves, twigs, grass, and aquatic plants.

Moose are highly dependent on mature forest habitats, and they tend to avoid clear-cuts until there is 15 to 25 years of tree regeneration on the site.

For food and shelter, moose depend on mixed stands of hardwoods and softwoods, where deciduous (leafy) trees make up at least one quarter of the mix.

Bulls develop large, heavy, shovel-shaped antlers annually to impress the cows when autumn arrives and the cows are pregnant through the winter.

Vulnerable to summer heat and late-winter’s blowing cold, moose seek the deep shade and shelter of mature softwood forests. They also take to water in summer, avoiding biting insects and feeding upon aquatic vegetation that is rich in the minerals they require. 

Beginning in the 1970s, new forest extraction technology has enabled too much harvesting, too fast, for too long. As new roads go in and logs come out, trout and moose disappear.

Wilderness access in recent decades has dramatically increased with the use of 4X4 vehicles, snowmobiles and ATVs. Moose tend to avoid areas when road densities reach or exceed 0.6 km per square kilometre. Vehicle impacts are catastrophic for humans and moose. Human disturbances, roads and motor vehicles, will drive moose elsewhere—but they rarely find good habitat that isn’t occupied by other moose or humans.

Climate change, poaching, brain worm (P.tenuis) infections spread by white-tailed deer, and ticks are other factors impacting moose populations.

Science has shown that moose require a forest buffer width of at least 60 metres between clear-cuts and waterways before they use them—but clear-cuts continue to be within 20 or 30 metres of waterways, depending on the province.   

Early commercial logging occurred on forest soils that contained nutrients accumulated over the 11,000 years since the last ice age. That logging sparked vast, young, second growth forests. The result was a smorgasbord of tender leaves and twigs, similar to the “moose pastures” that appear in the north after wildfires. The abundance of wood ash and dead trees jumpstarts vigorous new tree growth.

It’s a different soil story now.

Dried soils on clear-cuts have their nutrients blown away by winds or flushed away by rains. Erosion from flash-flooding scours streambeds and banks. Logs, pulp and chipped tree branches containing many scarce nutrients are trucked away.

One Dalhousie University scientist found that for every tonne of wood removed, six pounds of phosphates that are critical and in low supply in most maritime soils, exit the site with the wood. Calcium, the building-block for bones and antlers, is critically depleted in many forest soils.

Satellite image sites like Global Forest Watch Canada or Google Earth show the extent of forest fragmentation in Atlantic Canada. In Nova Scotia, about half of the forested areas have been clear-cut in the last 30 years. Nutrient-poor soils on moonscapes can hardly support moose.

In New Brunswick, moose harvest data for 2014-2017 show a decline in Region 3 of about 25 per cent in the past five years. This area includes Coles Island and Charlotte County, which have the most intensive forestry.

Using herbicides to control hardwoods eliminates moose food.

Provincial governments and forest companies are providing the funding to research moose population dynamics. Given that the funders sanction herbicides and promote clearcutting, it’s not surprising that climate change and ticks are current research topics.

Climate change seems an unlikely cause, even if many cool, shaded mature wooded “temperature sanctuaries” have been clear-cut. New Brunswick and Nova Scotia are not near the southern limits of current moose range across North America. Nova Scotia is a peninsula almost surrounded by the Atlantic Ocean. Temperatures are moderated by the sea and not subject to the interior continental heat of summer. Compared to New Hampshire, moose in NS & NB should be faring well in these climates.

As a field biologist, I find an overabundance of ticks on a mammal often is a sign of stress from other factors. Tick presence rarely tells the entire story. 

Why has the mainland moose in Nova Scotia fared badly since 2003? Core habitat has neither been identified nor protected, though it is required by law. Interim habitat protection measures are inadequate. Peter MacDonald, a biologist with the department of natural resources, stated in 2015 “the moose have been pushed not to the areas that they would choose to live, but where they can live.” Since being declared endangered in 2003, several mainland moose wintering areas on Crown (public) lands have been located, reported by department staff and harvested for pulp shortly afterwards.

On the positive side, the Nature Conservancy of Canada has been buying up land on the Chignecto Isthmus that connects Nova Scotia to New Brunswick. This “moose sex project” as it is called, is designed to provide a corridor connecting NB moose with the Cobequid Hills population of NS moose. Additional discussions about the importation of New Brunswick moose directly to the NS mainland moose population are currently taking place.

It’s definitely time to start to manage our forests with this incredible creature in mind. 

Header Credit: Scott Leslie
Header caption:Human activity, roads and motor vehicles often drive moose out of preferred habitat.
Intro Credit: Russell Lynch
Intro Caption: A young bull moose, his antlers still covered in velvet, watches alertly.